Politics watchers are keeping an eye on whether Huckabee is cultivating the relationships he would need in Iowa if he runs again. He won Iowa’s leadoff GOP caucuses in 2008, but not the Republican nomination.

Hogan Gidley, director of Huckabee’s political action committee HuckPac, has said the former Arkansas governor is seriously contemplating a bid for the White House but won’t decide until summer.

Vander Plaats, a Sioux City Republican, heads a conservative issue-advocacy group called the Family Leader. The group has invited Huckabee to speak in its presidential lecture series, but so far he hasn’t accepted.